The Charlotte Jewish News - February 2002 - Page 12
What’s Happening at the
Charlotte Jewish Preschool
The cold weather doesn’t
slow us down at The
Charlotte Jewish Preschool.
We have been busy from
Chanukah to New Year’s to
Open House.
CJP staff, students, and
parents enjoyed special
Chanukah celebrations with
their classes. Our students
feasted on Chanukah treats,
made dreidels and meno-
rahs, and performed
Chanukah plays, songs, and
dances.
CJP was open to all students,
during out winter break for a fun-
filled winter session. In addition to
classroom activities, students,
enjoyed enrichment classes, such
as, a lively music class, a hands-on
science experiment, and an active
gym class. CJP stu
dents, and staff also
spent the week
preparing for an excit
ing New Years cele
bration. At exactly
twelve (noon) on
December 31, we
brought in the New
Year with student-
made decorations and
noisemakers, pizza
and ice cream, and a
special countdown.
Our annual Open House was on
January 18. If you, or someone
you know, are interested in visit
ing CJP, please call 704-944-6776
to schedule a tour. We are current
ly enrolling for the 2002- 2003
school year and spaces are going
fast. ^
Presdiool
A joint venture of
Terrible Beth El and
Temple Israel
* Jewish
* Annual Silent Auction
Save the Pate!
Februaty 23f4, 2002 C7:30pm) at Temple Beth El
Call the Preschool office for information on
tickets anJ/ or cfonations. (704) 944-6776
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Matthew Danze digs
Chanukah cupcake.
Dreidel, dreidel, drei-
del, / made it out
of...Liana Gainsbow!
Ms. Cheri stars in a class per
formance of “Kippot for Sale. ”
Noah Tobias and Mom, Andrea, enjoy
a Chanukah feast.
Having fun at CJP all
winter long!
Royal Shakespeare Company to Perform
Merchant of Venice” at Davidson College
44
Davidson College is proud to
host the Royal Shakespeare
Company (RSC), the world’s fore
most production company of the
works of William Shakespeare, in
a twelve-day residency that will
help celebrate the opening of the
college’s new Duke Family
Performance Hall. This twelve-
day event will involve more than
50 members of the RSC in educa
tional outreach and performances
of “The Merchant of Venice.”
Merchant of Venice — Cruel
and Thought-Provoking
The eleven performances of
“The Merchant of Venice” in the
college’s new Duke Family
Performance Hall will take place
from February 22 through March
2. Shakespeare’s disparaging
treatment of Jews, customary 400
years ago, will be uncomfortable
to the modern audience, and raise
questions about current debates on
religion, justice, tolerance, and
mercy.
Shakespeare — Learning
Through Total Immersion
The residency presents unparal
leled educational opportunities for
teachers, students, actors, and the
general public. Members of the
troupe and associated Shakespeare
scholars will present more than 50
workshops during the residency.
Among those open to the public
are:
February 26, 5:00 PM
Lecture by David Scott
Kasten of Columbia University
on ^‘Semitism in The Merchant
of Venice.”
Alvarez College Union, Smith
900 Room, Davidson College
Campus.
February 27, 5:00 PM
Panel discussion on Semitism
with David Scott Kasten, Royal
Shakespeare Company actors,
and Davidson Faculty.
Alvarez College Union, Smith
900 Room, Davidson College
Campus.
Performances are scheduled for
7:30 PM the evenings of February
22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, and March
1 and 2. Matinee shows will be
offered at 2:00 PM on February
23, 24 and March 2. Tickets are
$60 each, and can be purchased by
calling 704-894-2135.
Diamant’s
Mikvah
(Continued from page 10)
prospective converts to the mik
vah.
Her first encounter with a mik
vah was almost 20 years ago,
when her future husband, Jim
Ball, converted.
While her husband’s immersion
experience was powerful and “life
transforming,” Diamant has often
found the mikvah lacking, particu
larly as a way of welcoming some
one into a new Jewish life.
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“There’s nowhere to celebrate,
nowhere for family members to
stand,” she says. “I didn’t want to
give anyone else flowers in the
parking lot — I felt we should be
able to do better.”
Most mikva’ot have limited
hours available for conversions
and alternative rituals. Since they
usually are run by the Orthodox
community, they sometimes can
feel intimidating to liberal Jews,
Diamant says.
Diamant hopes Boston’s new
mikvah inspires new rituals and
uses.
“We won’t know how it will get
used until we build it and people
feel ownership,” she says. “There
will be new music composed, new
brachot, new art, new liturgy and
new rituals.”
Diamant is president of Mayyim
Hayyim, which has the support of
Boston’s Combined Jewish
Philanthropies, the Synagogue
Council of Massachusetts — an
interdenominational umbrella
group — and several local Jewish
agencies.
So far, approximately $100,000
has been raised.
Diamant did not grow up with a
formal Jewish education, and has
done most of her Jewish learning
as an adult.
' She and her husband belonged
to a Jewish book club for years
and are active in their Reform
temple. Congregation Beth El of
the Sudbury River Valley in
Sudbury, MA.
Their teen-age daughter,
Emilia, is a leader in the Reform
movement’s North American
Federation of Temple Youth.
Diamant also participated in
Me'ah, an intensive, two-year
adult education course in Boston.
An adult Bat Mitzvah is “on my
list,” she says, but she’s been
putting it olf because “I have a
hard time with Hebrew. I think
I’m a little dyslexic.”
Diamant is also making time
for writing, though not — as some
“Red Tent” fans might hope —
more biblical epics.
She recently published a novel
about two middle-aged women in
a Massachusetts seaside town, and
now is working on a novel set in
19th-century America.
Eventually Diamant plans to
return to nonfiction, possibly a
book about the mikvah.
Has the popularity of “The Red
Tent” changed her life?
“It’s every writer’s fantasy, so
there’s that kind of dream come
true, Cinderella, I can’t believe it
quality,” she says. In addition, she
notes, “People call you back.”
“I might have poured as much
energy into” Mayyim Hayyim
“before, but in terms of raising
money and capability it’s easier
now because of The Red Tent,”’
she says.
Nonetheless, she notes wryly,
“It hasn’t changed my daily life all
that much. I still have to walk the
dog.” O